Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) injected much-needed energy into a Democratic National Convention that risked dragging on Monday night, telling the Democratic faithful about her own journey from waiting tables and helping her mother fend off foreclosure after her father died from cancer.
“I’m here tonight because America before us has a rare and precious opportunity in Kamala Harris,” she said. “We have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class because she is from the middle class.”
Ocasio-Cortez took the stage just moments after Harris—the party’s presidential nominee—made a surprise appearance on stage, walking out to Beyoncé’s hit song Freedom and a standing ovation from a packed crowd at the United Center in Chicago.